FINAL FANTASY XIV: DAWNTRAIL
Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida speaks to Daniella Lucas about what to expect from the upcoming Dawntrail expansion
FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA SUMMER 2024 / PUB SQUARE ENIX DEV SQUARE ENIX CREATIVE BUSINESS UNIT III / PLAYERS MULTI
The last ten years of FFXIV have taken the Warriors Of Light on a truly epic journey; players have fought gods, stopped the tide of imperialism, ended a 1,000-year war against dragons, saved a parallel world, and even halted a despair-induced apocalypse. So how on earth can the team behind one of the best MMORPGs ever hope to follow that up?
We recently got the chance to speak with Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P – his in-game username – to fans) to talk about what it takes to make an MMORPG, and the upcoming Dawntrail expansion that will see us setting off on a completely new adventure.
Developing something on such a huge scale is a truly momentous undertaking, so what has Yoshida learned over the last decade of the game? “If I had to give one example to the Naoki Yoshida from 13 years ago, I would have told him that you need to be careful about pacing,” he tells us. “When we look at MMO development it differs from a standalone game in that when you’re going through the development process for a standalone game, it’s just very much a short timed sprint. Whereas if you were to give an analogy for an MMO, it’s more that you are participating in a marathon.
“You’re in it for the long run and you have to pace yourself appropriately. You need to be able to plan which parts will be going uphill, which parts with work would I be going downhill, what type of weather there would be, and so on. When it comes to MMO development, it’s quite important to pace yourself properly and take care in the long run. However, having said that, probably the Naoki from 13 years ago – the only thing he knew is to run forward and to sprint all the way. So even if I gave myself that advice back then, I think I would probably just end up sprinting anyway!”
NEXT CHAPTER
Fortunately he’s taking all those lessons with him into the development of the next expansion. With Endwalker drawing the saga of Hydaelyn and Zodiark to a close, Dawntrail marks a fresh beginning, but that doesn’t mean that the themes of the game will be scaled back. It also turns out that we may never have got such a large-scale story arc in the first place. “I think that it would be great if it i
